Samsung Galaxy III Sprint US Celluler

The new flagship smartphone from the world's number-one mobile company, Samsung's Galaxy S III ($199.99 with contract) is literally a large achievement. If you're keen on massive phones with innumerable choices, the GS3 can deliver state-of-the-art performance with bonus sharing and media options that you are probably to continue discovering a year from currently. Sprint subscribers currently have 2 solid choices: The Galaxy S III ties with the HTC EVO 4G LTE ($199, four stars) as our Editors' selection for touch-screen smartphones on Sprint.

Editors' Note: The Samsung Galaxy S III models on all four major carriers are extraordinarily similar, therefore we're sharing plenty of fabric between our varied reviews. That said, we're testing every device separately, therefore scan the review for your carrier of selection.

Physical style


All of the new Galaxy S III models look an equivalent, aside from the carrier emblem on the rear panel. every is out there in dark blue or white (AT&T additionally incorporates a red possibility returning this summer), and they are a number of the most important phones we've ever handled. At 5.4 by 2.8 by 0.34 inches (HWD) and four.7 ounces, the GS3 is slightly larger than the already-large HTC One X ($199, 4.5 stars), though it's still noticeably smaller and lighter than the Samsung Galaxy Note phone/tablet hybrid ($299, 3 stars). That said, this is often not a phone for people with little hands.

I'm not a friend of the massive phone. however I've given up on panning them as a result of whenever I recommend these handsets are too massive, i purchase pummeled by comments from those who adore them. Huge phones are the factor. I settle for it.

The all-plastic body feels to a small degree less high-end than the exotic materials of the HTC One series, however the phone is solidly designed, and light-weight despite its size. The front of the phone is dominated by the four.8-inch, 1280-by-720-pixel Super AMOLED HD screen. Yes, it's PenTile, which may generally look slightly pixelated. But, no, you most likely will not notice. Below the screen, there is a physical Home button, additionally as light-up Back and Multitasking buttons that begin out invisible, therefore you have got to memorize where they're or amendment a setting to stay them illuminated. The 8-megapixel camera is on the rear panel, which, due to its reflective end (on the blue model), doubles as a pocket mirror.

The default Automatic Brightness setting makes the screen too dim. Kill it and pump up the brightness and it's fine, even outdoors. it is not as bright because the One X's Super LCD two show, however it's fine.

Unlike the competing HTC One X, the S III incorporates a removable 2100mAh battery. setting out the rear cowl additionally reveals the microSD card slot, that supports cards up to 64GB.


Call Quality and web


Are you willing for Sprint to pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today? The EVO 4G LTE guarantees spectacular decision quality with HD Voice…sometime in 2013, once Sprint gets the network running. however the GS3 permits you to tweak your decision quality currently.

Default decision quality is sweet. Volume is on the high finish of average, with no distortion from loud inputs. The speakerphone is not quite loud enough to use outdoors, however it's fine for the automotive or a boardroom. The microphone will a decent job of cancelling background noise. Bluetooth headsets work fine with Samsung's S-Voice voice dialing system.

But like such a large amount of things here, decision quality gets richer if you burrow down into the GS3's menus. A Volume Boost button throws the phone into a super-loud, quasi-speakerphone mode for noisy areas, however that is simply the beginning. Deep inside the settings, there is an choice to set custom decision EQ. The phone plays you a sequence of quiet high and low tones and you tell it which of them you'll hear, and then it EQ's calls accordingly. this is often pretty radical stuff. I like my calls sharp, with a lot of high-end, and also the GS3 delivers.

On information though, the Sprint GS3 is crippled. All new Sprint phones are. though the phones support speedy LTE, Sprint has steadfastly refused to provide us a rollout timetable for its new LTE network, leaving its high-end smartphones on the slowest 3G network in America. we have a tendency to tested Sprint LTE, and it's competitive with AT&T and Verizon, however none of this matters a whit if Sprint will not tell us when anyone is obtaining it.

This is why Sprint's Galaxy S III is obtaining a rather lower rating than the opposite major carrier models. Sprint has to get its act along. we'll not provides a Sprint phone a four.5-star rating till the carrier provides its subscribers a lot of data regarding LTE coverage.

You'll have higher luck obtaining your web via Wi-Fi on each the two.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Bluetooth four.0 and NFC are onboard, and Google Wallet is preloaded.

Our battery take a look at did not complete as a result of we have a tendency to ran out of your time. however that is good; we have a tendency to around worn-out the battery with an eight hour, thirty five minute decision. This phone has solid battery life, and considering the battery is removable, you'll carry a spare. that is one thing you cannot do with the EVO 4G LTE.

Software and Performance


The Galaxy S III runs Android four.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" with an entire ton of exclusive Samsung extensions. Performance was glorious in my tests. The Qualcomm S4 chip running at one.5GHz is that the fastest one we have seen in smartphones to this point, and it's ready to strive against any app challenge you throw at it, as well as games on the HD screen. Our benchmark tests proved this, though they were inside the margin of error in comparison with the One X. each phones are terribly quick.

Exclusive new options embody S-Beam, the power to transfer files by tapping 2 phones along and employing a combination of NFC and Wi-Fi Direct; S-Voice, Samsung's answer to Apple's Siri; TecTiles, NFC-enabled accent tags which will amendment the settings on your phone, and plenty of sharing and tagging choices within the camera, like the power to automatically tag your friends' faces, and also the ability for multiple GS3s inside a number of feet of every different to automatically share all of their photos.

Many of those options work well, however they are the majority buried. The interface are a few things of a scavenger hunt. Take sensible keep, a neat new feature that detects your face and keeps the screen from going black whereas you are looking at it. i like it! however it is not on by default, and also the solely thanks to flip it on is by getting to the


Samsung helpfully pops up varied screens telling you regarding varied cool gestures you'll use, like raising the phone to your face to automatically decision somebody you are texting. however it is a ton of data to soak up, and plenty of gestures that you've got never used before. there is a sharp learning curve here.

Compare this with HTC, that has been operating to cut back distinctive UI parts. HTC's recent Sense four interface focuses on a number of new options and makes them integral: enhanced sound, a faster camera, and solid social networking integration. Samsung offers plenty a lot of, however it prices you plenty a lot of mental energy to work it all out.

I'll additionally decision out 2 minor disappointments. The screen rotated unexpectedly a lot of typically that i might like. Also, S-Voice is not as seamless or as complete as Siri. it is a fine voice-dialing system, as well as over Bluetooth, however I kept vocally stepping on its prompts when making an attempt to raise it a lot of difficult queries.

Beyond that, there is the standard raft of bloatware from each Samsung and Sprint: I count seventeen pre-installed apps, a number of that (Samsung's Music Hub store) did not really launch, and a few of that (Samsung Apps and also the S-Suggest app) are frustratingly redundant. Beyond that, there is the four hundred,000-plus apps within the Google Play Store.

Multimedia


The 16GB Galaxy S III we have a tendency to tested had 12GB of accessible memory and support for microSD cards up to 64GB, that match below the plastic back panel. there is additionally a 32GB model for $249.99 with contract, however given the phone's microSD support, i do not see the purpose of shopping for the more-expensive model. It plays all the standard music and video formats, as well as MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, Xvid, and WMV at resolutions up to 1080p.

Samsung has customized each the music and video players. they don't seem to be as good-looking as HTC's, however they are practical. at the side of the standard music navigation, there is a frill referred to as Music sq., that grades all of your music on a 2nd scale from "calm" to "exciting" and "passionate" to "joyful," making custom playlists by mood. there is additionally an epic range of EQ presets, that amendment the sound in effective, if gimmicky ways in which.

The picture/video gallery integrates Google and Facebook albums, and permits you to kind your videos as an inventory or with thumbnails. The flagship feature here is Pop-Up Play, which may float a video playback window over different apps; I found it to be fairly useless. Netflix and YouTube each look smart and run on LTE with none visible buffering. The phone additionally comes with Samsung's Media Hub music and video store, that incorporates a solid lineup of recent movies and television shows at industry-standard costs of $4 to rent and $15-$20 to shop for.

If you wish to play your video on an enormous HDTV, you would like to use Samsung's AllShare system, that like most different wireless video systems rarely works as a result of your home network does not have the bandwidth, or a new-style 11-pin MHL adapter. Our previous MHL adapters did not work.

The 8-megapixel camera takes good-looking, saturated photos that are sharp with very little noise, a minimum of in good light-weight. In our low-light take a look at, the shutter speed dropped to 1/40 second, which can cause some softness if you do not have a gentle hand. that is still higher than several cameraphones. The 1-megapixel front camera additionally showed solid low-light performance. The video mode captures 1080p videos at thirty frames per second indoors and out with the most camera, that is quite we have a tendency to might say for the HTC One X.

You get loads of gimmicky camera modes. HDR is significantly slower than on either the iPhone 4S ($199, 4.5 stars) or the HTC One X, and showed a bent to make "ghost" pictures after I tried it. Smile detection worked well, and Share Shot permits you to automatically stream photos to different GS3s within the space. Buddy Photo-Share tags faces with names based mostly on the photographs in their social-networking profiles. Those last 2 are buried within the camera settings and whereas cool, you are not probably to bump into them simply.

Conclusions


The Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC EVO 4G LTE are each state-of-the-art phones. In our scoring system, they tie, every with distinctive options. The Galaxy incorporates a removable battery, higher video recording quality, and no hiss in quiet audio output. The EVO 4G LTE is created from higher-quality materials, incorporates a brighter screen, a kickstand, a physical Camera button, higher home-screen widgets, and HD Voice within the future. you cannot get it wrong with either.

If these phones are simply too massive for you, select the LG Viper 4G LTE ($99, four stars) packs dual-core power and also the LTE future into a way smaller body. And if your upgrade is not urgent, you'll wish to contemplate hanging on to that previous WiMAX phone for a minute, a minimum of till you'll decide when Sprint LTE is returning to your town.

Specification for Samsung


Carrier

Type Sprint
Form issue
Form Factor Bar, bit screen

Size


Product Dimensions (inches) 5.38" x 2.78" x 0.34"
Weight (ounces) 4.7 Ounces
Color
Color Marble White

Battery


Battery, Standby 3G: Up to twelve.5 Days; LTE: Up to eight.3 Days
Battery, Usage Time Up to nine hours
Battery sort and Size 2100mAh

Network

Frequencies and information Type CDMA/1xRTT, EVDO, LTE 1900MHz
Data Speed CDMA/LTE®
Platform
Platform Android™ four.0, Ice Cream Sandwich
CPU / Processor
Processor Speed, Type 1.5GHz x 2, Qualcomm MSM8960

Display

Main show Resolution 1280 x 720 Pixel
Main show Size 4.8"
Main show Technology HD Super AMOLED™
User Interface
Features TouchWiz™; sensible Unlock; Accelerometer; Motion Gestures; sensible Stay; S Voice™; S Suggest™; Kies Air; Pop Up Play; Share Shot; AllShare® Play

Camera


Camera Resolution 8.0 Megapixel
Front-facing Camera Resolution 1.9 Megapixel
Digital Optical Zoom 4x
Features Auto Focus; Shot Modes, Auto, Cloudy, Daylight, Fluorescent, Incandescent; Camcorder; DivX®; HD Recording; HD Playback; Video Share; Zero lag shutter; Burst Mode; Best Shot; Share Shot; Smile Shot; Buddy photo share

Audio

Features Music Player; Compatible Music Files, 3GP, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, M4A, MIDI, MMF, MP3, PMD, QCP, WAV, WMA; Audio, Streaming; Ringtones, Polyphonic; MP3/Music Tones
Video
Features Video Player; Compatible Video Files, 3GPP, H.264, MPEG4, WMV; Video, Streaming

Fun and Entertainment


Features Downloadable Content; Animated Wallpapers; Samsung Widget Gallery; Samsung Media Hub; Google Play™ Books; Music and Movies; Google Talk™; Flipboard™
Business & workplace
Features Microsoft® Office-compatible; Voice Memo

Messaging choices


Features Messaging options: Email; company Email; image Messaging; Text Messaging; Instant Messaging; Threaded / Chat-style Messages; Predictive Text (T9®/XT9®); T9 Trace

Connectivity

Features Bluetooth®; Bluetooth® Profiles, A2DP, AVRCP, HID, HFP, PBAP, HSP, OPP, SPP; Wi-Fi® ; Wi-Fi® Hotspot; HTML Browser; Flash®; GPS

Memory


Internal Memory RAM (2GB), ROM (16GB)
External Memory/microSD™ Capacity Up to 64GB microSD

Calling Functions


Features Speakerphone; Voice Recognition; Voicemail; Visual Voicemail; Text-to-speech; Music ID; image decisioner ID; Multitasking; Call Restrictions; Hearing Aid Compatible (HAC), M4; TTY; Airline Mode

Samsung Focus II Reviews

Ready for Samsung's latest entrant to the Windows Phone game? Hopefully you answered "yes," as a result of we're on the point of take you thru an in-depth check up on such a device: the main target two. round the time that we have a tendency to United States-based Engadgeteers were lusting over Nokia's Lumia 800 and reaching to recognize the HTC Titan, Samsung introduced its Focus S and lower-tiered Focus Flash WP7.5 handsets. Redmond's hardware restrictions haven't precisely modified abundant since then, begging the question on how the main target two fits in as a late follow-up to the first Focus from back in 2010. the majority of the solution, of course, is LTE. This handset is that the solely different Windows Phone except for the Lumia 900 and HTC Titan II to feature such connectivity on Ma Bell's network. That, and it's priced at simply $50 greenbacks on a two-year commitment. Is it a veritable steal just like the Focus Flash proved to be, though? be a part of us past the break where we'll lay it all out.




Hardware


Inside the box you will find the main target two, a USB cable with a cube-shaped wall adapter, an in-ear headset and a combine of knowledge pamphlets. Anyone at home with T-Mobile's Galaxy Blaze 4G may feel a way of déjà vu as they look at the main target two for the primary time. The devices are similar in style, however the main target two falls victim to our all-too-common grievance with Sammy-bred phones: it feels simply somewhat too plasticky. Samsung traded the Blaze's brushed-metal accents and textured battery cowl in favor of a literally slick "Gloss Pure White" end. the general style ethos remains intact, though, that the device a minimum of feels pleasing in hand. you will find a 4-inch (WVGA) Super AMOLED show up front with Windows Phone's normal trio of backlit capacitive buttons on top of rock bottom edge. colours on the screen seem vibrant with gobs of distinction, the black levels are terribly deep and you may get fairly sensible viewing angles. Tilt the device concerning a hundred and fifty degrees, however, and you may begin noticing some color shifting.

Here's the thing: having the non-Plus sort of Super AMOLED suggests that you are obtaining PenTile, and it's simply noticeable. Once you have seen a show like those belonging to the main target Flash or perhaps the four.3-inch Lumia 900, it makes the 800 x 480 resolution look worse than it very is. It's particularly obvious on curved borders and text, creating what ought to be a swish white seem like grid paper. we have a tendency to found that it irritated our eyes and was tougher to specialize in than comparable displays while not it. The attention-grabbing takeaway is that the main target two encompasses a slightly higher ppi than the Lumia 900 (233 pixels per in. vs. 217). it might be wise to grab a glance at this phone personally to check if you'll live with it.



With that detailed, it is time to maneuver somewhat below the show. The capacitive buttons are ultra-responsive just like the ones we have a tendency to experienced on the older Focus models, and also the device's vibration motor left us with unquestionably higher haptic feedback than the Lumia 900. That said, that level of responsiveness becomes a pain in Landscape mode, where we have a tendency to repeatedly found ourselves accidentally exiting out of Netflix into Bing rather like with those different Focuses. Another quirk that'll surely annoy some of us is what quantity the buttons remove darkness from -- they are jarring indoors, being brighter than the show on its highest setting. By the way, do not count on the vibration motor to be refined throughout a quiet meeting; we have a tendency to noticed it makes a boop pitch that'll simply be amplified if set down on a table.

The back of the main target two lays claim to a 5-megapixel sensor, LED flash and speakerphone. scraping the skinny, snap-on battery cowl reveals a micro-SIM slot and a one,750mAh battery to stay the handset juiced. A chunky stripe of chrome plastic wraps round the edges of device calling it quits its milky white complexion. On the proper, it homes an influence button and a two-stage shutter unharness, together with a volume rocker on the left. All of the buttons have a lovely click while not being too stiff, however they are doing feel simply a bit wobbly like we have a tendency to noted on the Lumia 800. The shutter button feels particularly nice, however, solely requiring a lightweight faucet to grab a photograph while not inducing any shake. That leaves us with the highest of the device, where there is a three.5mm headset jack and secondary noise-cancelling microphone, and also the bottom that homes the most microphone and micro-USB port.

If you caught our initial hands-on, one purpose that also resonates with us is how tiny it feels in hand. Despite having a 4-inch screen, it does not appear abundant larger than the Galaxy S or perhaps an iPhone 3GS. It's as long as you place these devices back-to-back when it becomes apparent the main target two is larger. we have a nifty chart that goes over the key specs of the main target two below, compared to the Titan II and Lumia 900 for perspective.

Performance and battery life


It's obtaining tiresome to notice that a brand new Windows Phone performs concerning a similar because the others on the software front, however that is precisely the case here. Given the hardware restrictions which will stay in place till Windows Phone eight hits, you are left with a one.4GHz single-core CPU, an Adreno 205 GPU and 512MB of RAM to run your phone. As such, there are not any surprises here, with the device averaging a WP Bench score of eighty seven.2 when 10 runs -- predictably not so much behind each different Windows Phone we've used.

Performance is sometimes swish, however it isn't ultra-zippy just like the latest iPhone and prime tier of Android flagships. it isn't possible to be a problem as long as you are not an extreme power user -- heck, a minimum of 3 Engadget editors manage to use Mango devices as their daily drivers, thus we actually mean it after we say "extreme." Apps usually load fairly quickly, however we have a tendency to sometimes experienced load-screen hangups whereas making an attempt to access basics like Messages and Twitter. except for that and a few delicate stuttering when swiping around, we'd be hard-pressed to mention any of the Windows Phone flagships perform materially higher. the most concern we've with the main target two rests with its 8GB (6.51GB user-accessible) of non-expandable storage. Despite having powerful connectivity, it leaves us to assume that Samsung is forcibly positioning an otherwise solid device into the newbie smartphone owner territory -- that, or it's hoping you're keen on SkyDrive.


Using a Lumia 900 alongside the main target two, we actually did not notice abundant of a distinction between their running times. As long as you are not tethering over LTE and HSPA+ for concerning 3 hours daily like we have a tendency to do, you may simply be ready to eke out over a day's value of life -- see you later as Mango's battery saver is turned on. Even adding during a light-weight quantity of Netflix streaming, a couple of calls, texting, many camera shots and light-weight browsing, we have a tendency to may in all probability build it through a traditional workday while not an outlet. That said, the main target two managed to last eighteen minutes longer than the Lumia 900's four hours and twenty nine minutes in WP Bench's CPU-intensive battery rundown. it isn't a whopping achievement by any suggests that, however if battery life is your main concern for a Windows Phone then look no any.

Speaking of radio signals, let's observe speeds. Using BandWidth, we have a tendency to were ready to record LTE throughput as high as concerning 10Mbps down (with peaks up to 13) and 5Mbps up in San Francisco. Tethering to a laptop in Midtown Manhattan, the most effective we have a tendency to managed was around five Mbps down and four Mbps up in line with SpeedTest.net. Considering we have seen upwards of twenty one Mbps down on the Lumia 900 and Titan II, we're disappointed that, in our LTE trials, the phone could not build it out of the speed zone that is common for HSPA+. internet browsing in IE9 is sometimes simply peppy enough, however as our most correct SunSpider score shows (7,058ms +/- zero.3 percent), it is a bit slower than the remainder of the pack. we have a tendency to experienced load times in way over a second to completely load pages over WiFi with the Lumia 900, and also the results are not any higher here. you will not catch any checkerboarding, however scroll down an extended webpage and you may be greeted by a ocean of white for a second or 2.



Lackluster speeds aside, we have a tendency to came away quite impressed with the audio quality on the main target two. Compared to the Lumia 900, the device has abundant less hiss within the signal and somewhat less grit to overall sound, with headphones plugged in. though WP7.5 still cannot seamlessly transition between 2 tracks while not a fast pause, we have a tendency to did not expertise any popping like we have a tendency to do with the 900. Unluckily enough for Nokia's flagship, it does not stop there -- the main target 2's earpiece made clearer audio, while not the slightest hints of metallic tones just like the Lumia produces. Even the speakerphone sounds clearer, creating the 900's sound somewhat muddier and condensed compared (it's sound is noticeably thicker, however). apparently enough, the main target two conjointly encompasses a hotter volume output (at least within the lower volume settings) through its headphone jack, needing solely to hit three or four out of thirty when the Lumia required to be close to fifteen to attain a similar output. With each devices, though, callers on the opposite finish did not have any complaints concerning hearing us. The Lumia 900 is actually a decent performer within the voice quality department, however there is no question that Samsung's lower-tiered device comes out a step ahead. And in case you are wondering, the included in-ear headphones are basically (save for the inline remote and mic) what you'd get with a Galaxy Player: passable at best.

Camera


Let's begin this section by stating that, no, this 5-megapixel shooter will not rival your Canon S95s. It will have some redeeming qualities, however, particularly when pit it against the Lumia 900. Once you get into the main target 2's live screen, the 900's look awful by comparison -- the framerate is smoother whereas panning, and also the dreaded pink center that different WP7.5 devices suffer from is a minimum of less obvious. The Lumia 900 will turn out sharper pictures with a lot of data and a wider angle because of its 8-megapixel sensor and 28mm lens, however the main target two never slipped up with auto white balance just like the 900 will on nearly each shot.


Its distinction levels are somewhat over the highest on auto and highlights tended to urge blown out simply, however you'll continually modify your settings because of Windows Phone's plethora of manual choices. Low-light performance from the main target is suitable.The images made are noticeably less noisy than the Lumia, however the shots do take off somewhat darker. The lens conjointly suffers from some extreme flare-ups when any bright lights from cars and also the like are introduced, thus do not bet on something apart from artsy leads to those forms of things. we have a tendency to were ready to achieve higher bokeh from the macro mode on the main target two than the 900, however it had had an inclination to specialize in the background in difficult light-weight things. The time it will take to catch focus with each devices is concerning the same: not significantly fast. you would be more happy simply whipping out a standalone camera if you are hoping to catch moving subjects, as you are results can continually have somewhat of blur. you may conjointly notice a 4x digital zoom, however we'd steer away from it because the results are worse than the VGA front-facing camera. Speaking of that, it will do okay for videocalls. Pictures? Spare yourself the grief and do not even opt for it. Overall, the cameras onboard are simply adequate and also the Lumia's results are largely higher -- even though it suggests that some additional tweaking to form it happen.



Let's observe moving pictures currently. That rear shooter is additionally capable enough to capture VGA and 720p HD video (30fps). Video quality, just like the photos, is simply adequate to urge the task done. colours come back through naturally, however you may even be addressing a good quantity of rolling shutter, lens-flaring, blown-out highs and wobbling from the slightest movements (there's no image stabilization to talk of). so much as we are able to tell you are conjointly stuck with a hard and fast focus, however fortunately, exposure is continuously adjusted automatically. The audio results for video, not like the remainder of of the phone, comes out as compressed garbage to be blunt. As you'll hear in our sample video, our blabbering simply clips the signal because it tries to complete the traffic whizzing by. you may conjointly notice that the birds chirping sound a lot of like harsh squeals, which the general sound is tinny. the foremost annoying side we have a tendency to controlled is that video defaults to VGA, that means you will likely miss several quickly-passing moving if you would like to shoot in HD.

Software


Remember Windows Phone seven.5 Mango? Yeah, it's precisely the same Metro-styled UI with Live Tiles and sparse customizability choices you either love, hate or have learned to measure with. Samsung and AT&T have added their usual array of bloatware apps, however you'll delete all of them to liberate a lot of of that spare space for storing. On the AT&T front, there is U-Verse Mobile, Family Map, Navigator, YPmobile and surprisingly helpful Code Scanner, whereas Samsung packs in its usual currently news and weather aggregator and Photo Studio editor. not like most crapware we have a tendency to really found ourselves using these 2 Samsung additions a good deal -- the currently application simply trumps Redmond's baked-in weather app. you may conjointly notice these and different exclusive bits within the AT&T Featured and Samsung Zone sections among the Marketplace, leaving us to once more surprise why they need to return pre-loaded on the device within the initial place. Notably, Samsung's free Photogram app gave us access to some nifty filters like HDR and Glow, which provides you a lot of choices additionally to the likes of Lomoshot and Dreamshot found in Photo Studio. We'd be remiss to not mention that Photo Studio conjointly allows different goodies sort of a Panorama mode.

Wrap-up


We're very at a toss-up with the Samsung Focus two. we discover ourselves reluctant to fall in love with the present crop of devices because the next version of Windows Phone looms ever nearer, however geez will the main target two tug on our geeky heartstrings. When it comes right down to it, we have a tendency to feel like Samsung is taking part in love games with us on this one. you have currently got a $50 possibility for an LTE-capable Windows Phone which will outlive the batteries of the $100 Lumia 900 and $200 Titan II and outperform a minimum of one on audio quality, marred by a PenTile show, a paltry 6.51GB of user-accessible and non-expandable storage, and slow LTE speeds. Furthermore, the general package does not function a compelling upgrade from even the sooner Focus models unless your heart is ready on LTE and tethering. a day that we have a tendency to catch up with to Apollo it gets tougher to suggest the likes of the Lumia 900 and also the HTC Titan II on AT&T's network, creating the lower-tiered Focus two an excellent tougher sell. there is no question that the main target two could be a solid very little handset, however we have a tendency to even have little doubt that when faced with a two-year agreement the Lumia 900 continues to be the most effective bang for your buck if you'll pony up the additional $50.

Spec Data




Design

Device type:                                  Smart phone
OS:                                              Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
Dimensions:                                  4.79 x 2.47 x 0.43 (122 x 63 x 11 mm)
Weight:                                        4.30 oz (122 g)
the average is 4.1 oz (118 g)

Display

Physical size:                      4.00 inches
Resolution:                         480 x 800 pixels
Pixel density:                      233 ppi
Technology:                       Super AMOLED
Colors:                              16 777 216
Touchscreen:                     Capacitive, Multi-touch
Features:                           Light sensor, Proximity sensor

Battery

Talk time:                        6.00 hours
the average is 9 h (521 min)
Stand-by time:                10.4 days (250 hours)
the average is 21 days (495 h)
Capacity:                       1750 mAh


Hardware

Processor:                          Single core, 1400 MHz
Graphics processor:            Yes
Built-in storage:                   8 GB


Camera

Camera:                            5 megapixels
Flash:                                LED
Features:                           Auto focus, Geo tagging, Panorama
Camcorder:                      1280x720 (720p HD) (30 fps)
Features:                          Continuous autofocus in a video, Video calling
Front-facing camera:        0.3 megapixels VGA

Multimedia

Music player:
Filter by:                         Album, Artist, Playlists
Features:                        Album art cover, Background playback
Radio:                            FM
Speakers:                      Earpiece, Loudspeaker

Internet browsing  

Browser:                                           Internet Explorer 9
Supports:                                          HTML, HTML5
Built-in online services support:          Facebook, Twitter

Technology

GSM:                                             850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
UMTS:                                           850, 1900, 2100 MHz
LTE:                                               700 MHz Class 17, 1700/2100 MHz
Data:                                              LTE, HSPA (unspecified), UMTS, EDGE, GPRS
Positioning:                                    A-GPS
Navigation:                                    Yes

Phone features

Phonebook:  Unlimited entries, Caller groups, Multiple numbers per contact, Search by both first and last name, Picture ID, Ring ID
Organizer:   Calendar, Alarm, Document viewer (Office 2007, Office 2003, PDF), Calculator, World clock
Messaging:  SMS, MMS, Threaded view, Predictive text input
E-mail:        IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Direct Push e-mail

Connectivity


Bluetooth:                2.1, EDR
Wi-Fi:                     802.11 b, g, n
Mobile hotspot:       Yes
USB:                      USB 2.0
Connector:             microUSB
Features:                USB charging
Computer sync, OTA sync
Other features
Notifications:    Music ringtones (MP3), Polyphonic ringtones, Vibration, Flight mode, Silent mode, Speakerphone
Sensors:         Accelerometer, Compass
Voice dialing, Voice commands, Voice recording
Availability
Officially
announced:

Samsung Mesmerize (U.S. Cellular) Reviews

Our readers' best-beloved smaller wireless carrier currently has 2 world-class Android smartphones. Samsung Mesmerize, the U.S. Cellular's model within the Samsung Galaxy S line of Android-powered phones, is sweet enough to draw customers aloof from rival Verizon Wireless. it is also a little higher than the rival HTC want ($199, 4.5 stars), creating the Mesmerize our Editors' selection for smartphones on U.S. Cellular. It conjointly makes the cut for our list of Phones With the simplest Battery Life.

U.S. Cellular, the nation's sixth-largest carrier, covers elements of twenty six states and frequently gets high marks in our Readers' selection awards. The carrier recently launched the "Belief Project," a collection of recent customer-service standards and bonuses together with a loyalty reward program, overage protection, free battery swaps, and different goodies.

Hardware and Phone Performance


The Mesmerize is basically an equivalent hardware because the Samsung Fascinate ($199, four stars) on Verizon Wireless, however the software builds and U.S. Cellular's service plans are completely different enough to draw shoppers aloof from Verizon's model. To recap, this is often a slim, black-slab phone at four.9 by 2.5 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and four.1 ounces, with a 4-inch, 800-by-480 super AMOLED touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera on the rear. The phone's black plastic body is straightforward to carry, and if you have never seen the colours on one among Samsung's Super AMOLED screens before, then they will extremely knock your socks off.

Like the Fascinate, the Mesmerize could be a excellent voice phone. It's nice and loud, and voices sound clear. The speakerphone is of a good volume. Transmissions sound good; there is a little bit of background noise, however voices come back through clearly. You get a large amount of facet tone, that is that the echo of your own voice in your ear that forestalls you from yelling into the phone. The handset conjointly paired simply with our Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset. The Nuance voice dialing works over Bluetooth, that is nice, however I found it horribly inaccurate. Battery life was completely spectacular with nearly eight hours of speak time in my tests.

The Mesmerize connects to the net using U.S. Cellular's EV-DO Rev A network and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. I had no issues hooking up to our WPA2-protected company network. The Mesmerize conjointly works as a 3G hotspot on U.S. Cellular's network, therefore you ought to expect speeds around 1Mbps. the extra service set up prices $25 per month. in step with Samsung, the phone will meet up with the company's Kies computer software eventually. that is a neat Samsung app that helps you to sync contacts and calendars domestically with Outlook—a rare feature on Android phones.

Mesmerizing Software


The Mesmerize, just like the Fascinate, runs Android a pair of.1. An upgrade to version a pair of.2 is returning soon, Samsung says. Like all the Galaxy S phones, Samsung has laid its TouchWiz UI layer over Android. that provides the phone a somewhat completely different look than different Android devices, along side a far better phone book, a far better Microsoft Exchange shopper, deeper connections to social networking services, and a number of custom apps.

However, the Fascinate became controversial as a result of Verizon replaced Google search on the phone with Bing. that won't the case here—and, of course, Verizon's different bloatware is not on the Mesmerize either. U.S. Cellular did add a number of apps, however they are comparatively low-key. for instance, there is a Telenav-based GPS navigation app (which found my location quickly and accurately) and a contact book backup.

Otherwise, the Mesmerize runs over one hundred,000 apps, and it will therefore brilliantly. The Galaxy S's 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU is quicker than the processors within the HTC want and Motorola Droid X, and is at par with T-Mobile's latest HTC myTouch HD. In any case, it's 1st rate.

Media and Conclusions


Like all Galaxy S phones, the Mesmerize is a wonderful media player. Samsung's music app shows album art, and it played all of my unprotected music files (including OGG format) flawlessly—both over wired and Bluetooth headphones. Video files of up to 720p resolution played smoothly, with virtual surround-sound in wired headphones. YouTube streamed HQ videos over Wi-Fi that were razor-sharp and butter-smooth in my tests. The phone has one.5GB of free internal memory and comes with a 16GB microSD card, which inserts into a slot underneath the rear cowl.

The Mesmerize encompasses a excellent 5-megapixel camera—at least excellent for a camera phone. each out of doors and indoor pictures were sharp, with smart color balance. I had occasional issues with blur in low-light conditions. The phone records 720p HD video at thirty frames per second, though video recorded in low-light areas gets noisy.

The Mesmerize outpaces each Verizon's Fascinate and U.S. Cellular's HTC want, though your selection between the 3 are going to be a matter of style. U.S. Cellular's friendly service plans and fewer carrier interference within the software create the Mesmerize a lot of appealing than the Fascinate. However, your call between the Mesmerize and want can depend upon whether or not you wish Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC's Sense UI. however you cannot deny that the Mesmerize encompasses a higher camera, a faster processor, and a bigger screen than the will, that create this wonderful Android phone our Editors' selection for U.S. Cellular.

Spec Data


Service supplier US Cellular
Operating System Android OS
Screen Size four inches
Screen Details 800-by-480 Super AMOLED glass capacitive bit screen
Camera Yes
Megapixels five MP
Camera Flash Yes
802.11x Yes
Bluetooth Yes
Web Browser Yes
Form issue Candy Bar
Network CDMA
Bands 850, 1900
High-Speed information 1xRTT, EVDO Rev 0, EVDO Rev A
Storage capability (as Tested) one.4 GB
Processor Speed one GHz
Keyboard No
Continuous speak Time seven hours fifty five minutes

Google Nexus 7 Reviews

The Google Nexus seven isn't solely the primary device to run the new Android four.1, aka Jelly Bean, it is also Google's response to the Amazon Kindle hearth and also the latest entry within the consumption/budget pill market. Manufactured by ASUS, the Nexus seven sells for either $200 for the eight GB version or $250 for the sixteen GB version.

But whereas it's going to be meant for media consumption and engineered as, primarily, a portal for Google Play content, it's not engineered sort of a easy budget pill. It sports high finish specs and other than the shiny restructure of Android, it's a 1280 x 800 Gorilla Glass show, a front-facing camera for video chatting, and, most impressively, an NVIDIA Tegra three quad-core processor. therefore do high-end specs and a low-end value equal Android gold? scan on and determine.

Build and style

First things first: the Nexus seven may be a stunning pill. Its body is all black, other than a silver trim round the edges, and at 0.75 pounds and zero.41 inches thick (slightly lighter and thinner than the Kindle hearth, that are zero.91 pounds and zero.45 inches thick) it's incredibly svelte and light-weight. It takes on a rather less boxy and rectangular look than the fireplace, with the sides sloping in gently toward the rear. i am typically an exponent of sharp edges as a result of I notice them to possess a cleaner, a lot of fashionable look, however even I found the form of the Nexus seven to be swish.



And a very nice bit is that the rear of the device is roofed with a textured, slightly rubberized material that is each comfy and sensible. i am of the private belief that each one tablets ought to have some style of grippy backing like this, instead of simply slick plastic, therefore i used to be terribly proud of this explicit style selection. The branding back here is straightforward too, with "Nexus" etched in close to the highest and "ASUS" down at rock bottom close to the tablet's one mono speaker.


Display

The 1280 x 800 seven-inch show of the Nexus 7 is sort of spectacular despite the very fact that it does not feature any of the ever-present, new-fangled show technologies that are obtainable of late (see: AMOLED, Super AMOLED, Super AMOLED and, Retina show, etc.). it's a good pixel density of 216 ppi and it's coated with Corning Gorilla Glass, giving it a beautiful-looking sheen and sharpness. On the best setting, the brightness of the show is over sufficient, even though it's not the brightest we've ever seen on a pill.

Other Buttons and Ports

One may conjointly add "minimalist" to the list of adjectives describing the look of the Nexus seven. The sharp, sleek look of the tablet's style is not cluttered with an array of buttons, ports, slots, or controls, because it has solely 2 buttons and 2 ports. If held in portrait orientation, there's the power/standby button and volume rocker, each located on the higher right aspect, and on rock bottom, there's the micro USB port and also the three.5mm headphone jack.

The only alternative style options of note are a front-facing webcam on the highest short fringe of the bezel, and atiny low set of contact points on the lower left aspect of the device, which can probably be used for the audio dock accent that ASUS has since announced for the Nexus seven. Few details are released concerning the dock, aside from the very fact that it'll charge your pill whereas holding it in landscape orientation and, of course, amplify your music.

I do have a difficulty with one amongst the look selections, though. Since the perimeters of the pill slope inward towards the rear, that angles the ability and volume rocker buttons far from the user slightly, that takes some obtaining used to. instead of having the buttons right there on the aspect of the pill where your fingers can instinctively reach for them, they are really a lot of towards the rear. I conjointly would like that holding the ability button for something longer than a split-second would not prompt the pill to question me if i would like to power it down (instead of simply putting it into standby), however within the grand theme of things, these are terribly minor complaints.

Speaker

The tablet's lone mono speaker is unquestionably a weak purpose of the Nexus seven. Normally, i might flip to my usual disparaging rhetoric concerning how terrible pill speakers are generally and move on. however whereas which will be the reality, the very fact here is that the Nexus seven is supposed to be a pill for media consumption. And when the complete purpose of your pill is to look at movies, hear music, play games, or otherwise interact in activities that always involve audio, you'd suppose that the manufacturer would place in 2 (stereo) speakers that are halfway good, a minimum of by pill standards.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, because the Nexus 7's speaker is of poor quality, even compared to alternative tablets, that isn't precisely a high normal. It will create an honest quantity of noise at most volume, however if you crank the degree up high enough to induce lots of sound out of it (or even at medium levels, at times) the distortion gets therefore dangerous that the speaker seems like it's tearing. It's extremely rough, and you are at an advantage using headphones whenever you'll be able to.

Specs

Google Android OS four.1 (Jelly Bean)
7-inch 1280 x 800 resolution, 216 ppi
1.3 GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra three processor
1GB RAM
8GB or 16GB of storage
Front-facing, 1.2-megapixel camera
802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, close to Field Communications (NFC)
7.82" x 4.72" x 0.41"
0.75 pounds
Price at launch: $200 (8GB), $250 (16GB)


Performance

The Google Nexus seven is powered by a Tegra three quad-core one.4 GHz processor (or one.5 GHz single-core), that performs fine, and it's backed by 1GB of RAM. High-end games look outstanding and cargo quickly, whereas the Tegra's GPU helps maintain swish framerates.

I never encountered any stuttering or lag when navigating the homescreens or menus, and despite the very fact that Android gave me the choice to pack up processes whenever I wished, I never extremely had to. I may literally have a dozen totally different apps still running within the background and that i would not see a dip in performance...but only for the sake of being organized, i might still pull up the list of running apps and shut a number of them down generally.

The only issue that stunned me to a small degree bit concerning the processor is that its onerous numbers came in right around where the Galaxy Tab seven.7 scored, which pill is run by a dual-core processor. therefore on paper, whereas it's still substantially at the highest of the food chain in terms of what is out there at once, the Nexus seven does not fully blow away today's tablets. do not get me wrong; for all intents and functions, its quad-core processor is great, however i used to be stunned that it did not fully crush its dual-core competition, that I conjointly suppose would have helped to future-proof the device a little a lot of.

As so much because the browser thinks about, Chrome on the Nexus seven provided a wonderfully swish browsing expertise, and one that is particularly acquainted if you employ the desktop version of Chrome. sensible for Google for not skimping on options just because this can be a mobile version of the browser. The proof of Chrome's performance is within the pudding, because it scored well within the Sunspider benchmark, yet again inserting it at the highest of the pack. Take a glance at the benchmark charts below for each Quadrant and Sunspider to visualize a number of the numbers that the Nexus seven created.



Obviously, one amongst the foremost vital options of the Nexus seven is its operating system, as it is the initial device to sport the restructure of Google's Android OS, that has the code-name "Jelly Bean". TabletPCReview are running a full standalone review of the OS within the close to future, however it would not be honest to review the Nexus seven while not a minimum of a short overview of a number of the new options of Android four.1 and the way they sit with us.

The most outstanding new element that Jelly Bean brings to the Android OS is Google currently, that is quite like an aggregator app on steroids. To access it, you'll be able to either swipe up from rock bottom of the screen at any time, or go straight to it from the lock screen. Basically, Google currently creates customized "cards" for users with helpful, relevant data, and pulls them along at predetermined points in time for you to look at. Take, for instance, the Traffic Card: it will gather data for traffic in a very sure space and seem before your commute from home, before your commute back home, when you are leaving an airport or hotel when you are traveling, etc. however you'll be able to tinker with the settings for the cardboard and check off whichever of these choices you wish, therefore the card solely pulls the data and seems once you wish it to.

Right now, it seems that there's simply a hard and fast set of classes for the cards that you just will personalize, however the concept definitely has space for many of growth. because it currently stands, there are cards for weather, traffic, next appointment (pulled from your calendar, as are several of the cards), travel, flights, public transit (schedules), nearby places, and sports (you will edit the groups that information/stats are aggregated throughout games).

Google currently may also be used to run searches -- through text or voice recognition -- and if it's on a well-liked enough subject, Google currently can really pull up another variety of card, a probe card. This search card options summarized data relevant to your search, and Google currently can show it at the highest of your search results and even scan it back to you. as an example, my editor asked the Nexus seven, "Who are the New England Patriots quarterbacks?" and a card with a Patriots brand popped up with "Tom Brady, Ryan Mallett, Brian Hoyer," written on it, at the side of a supply and a link for a lot of data. Regular internet results were listed below it.

Getting search results that come with these cards and their fast, condensed data may be a nice plan, however it's somewhat hit or miss at the instant. The feature hasn't extremely been around long enough for Google to induce {a perfect|an planl} idea of what style of searches or topics are becoming the foremost hits (and subsequently confirm that searches ought to have cards), however it is a work in progress, with a lot of search cards being created on a daily basis.

The voice recognition will currently even be used offline, a brand new feature for transcription that, whereas helpful, would most likely have a lot of attractiveness if the Nexus seven had an information affiliation, as a result of offline voice recognition would impede on knowledge consumption. Nevertheless, it works well and is nice for composing long emails or messages offline for later use, or for taking down notes. and do not worry, it works for many of alternative languages besides English, with extra downloadable offline speech recognition packs for Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Japanese, and more.

In terms of a number of the smaller tweaks in Android four.1, there are things like slightly faster performance and smoother animations that you just most likely will not even extremely notice unless you are looking for them. however maybe a lot of considerably, there's currently a pull-down menu which will be accessed by swiping down from the highest of the screen. It's primarily a similar style of toolbar/system tray that would be accessed in Android four.0 or 2.3 by tapping the lower right-hand corner of the screen (where the time, battery gauge, Wi-Fi signal, etc. were all located), supplying you with access to your notifications, orientation lock, the name of the network to that you are currently connected, date and time, and a shortcut to the settings menu.

Unfortunately, for a few reason Google determined to eliminate the inclusion of an explicit battery meter on this pull-down menu (or anywhere on the house screen); in previous versions of Android, the toolbar featured the share of remaining battery life. Users are currently instead restricted to merely atiny low battery meter icon to allow you a general plan of what proportion juice is left, and if they need the precise variety, they need to travel menu diving into the settings.

And there's one alternative issue price mentioning, which is that this explicit version of Jelly Bean keeps the screen locked in portrait orientation when on the house screens or browsing through menus. Also, when users are on the house screens, there's a toolbar down at rock bottom where they will stash shortcuts or folders for his or her apps. When using sure apps, but -- say, Gmail, or when you are internet browsing -- you'll be able to flip the pill sideways and shift the orientation, a bit like previous times.

Now, I say "this explicit version of Jelly Bean," as a result of Google has since revealed that there'll differ user interfaces for various sized tablets. whereas this can be the UI setup for 7-inch tablets, 10-inch tablets can have a layout that's almost like that of tablets running Android three.0 and later, in line with Google, which suggests that it is flipped to landscape orientation and can have the a lot of ancient setup of getting the notification menu down within the lower right-hand corner. How precisely the UI can look on phones is currently unknown, however we tend to do understand that it'll be its own version, as Google has confirmed that the UI on the Nexus seven may be a layout specifically designed for 7-inch tablets.

Google Play Store and Apps

The Nexus seven may be a consumption pill that's engineered around Google Play, formerly called the Android App Store; its specialize in downloadable content and media is exactly why it sells for therefore very little. therefore the question then is: how sensible is Google Play? If the content of Google Play primarily justifies the existence of the Nexus seven, it higher be pretty darn sensible. And it is.

When it involves the scale of the choice, Google Play simply has the sting over its direct competition, the Amazon App Store for the Kindle hearth. Google Play has over 600,000 apps, and an ample choice of songs, books, magazines, and movies, though admittedly, Google is a smaller amount specific concerning those numbers. And whereas it's true that the Amazon App Store provides users the flexibility to stream movies through its Amazon Instant Video service (if you are a Prime member, that is), it is not precisely as if Nexus seven users haven't got variety of how to induce their hands on video; Netflix, Hulu Plus, and also the thousands of flicks and television shows that Google Play offers ought to have you ever sufficiently lined.

Game choice is solid further, with most of the key hits, particularly the casual/social games like Zynga titles, obtainable on Android. iOS still features a few huge exclusives, like Infinity Blade, except for the foremost half, you should not have any hassle finding what you wish. Personally, i used to be perfectly content with my Scramble, Words, and Hanging With Friends.

And Google Play operates with all of a similar advantages because the Apple App Store, specifically with regards to cloud storage. All of the content purchased in Google Play is stored on the cloud therefore it is viewed and/or played anywhere, anytime. obtain a song on your computer and hear it on your phone, or even obtain an app on your phone and play it on your pill. As long because the device you are using has the specified version of Android to run the app in question, moving from one device to a different ought to be a breeze.

There's never needing for any wires or syncing, as a result of content purchased on Google Play is accessible from all of your Android devices and your desktop laptop. you'll be able to even deliver downloads to your devices by getting them on-line via Google Play and choosing that of your devices you wish it sent to, therefore it'll be waiting there for you succeeding time you power it up.

Thankfully, Google extremely took it straightforward in terms of the pre-loaded content. Most of what comes on the pill is simply Google's suite of branded apps, like Chrome, Maps, Google+, Gmail, Earth, Navigation, Talk, Currents, and links to Play content like Play Books, Magazines, Music, and films & TV.

The one alternative Google branded app that stands out is that the inclusion of Google Wallet, since the Nexus seven has NFC support - though sadly, we tend to were unable to undertake it out, either as a kind of payment or communication between 2 devices via Android Beam. the remainder of what you will find here is simply utilities sort of a calculator, calendar, contacts list, gallery, and a shortcut to voice search.



Camera

Though it's going to be unfortunate (at least to some users) that the Nexus seven doesn't have a rear-facing camera, it will have a one.2-megapixel front-facing webcam, that is over is said for its direct competition, the Kindle hearth and also the Barnes and Noble Nook pill. By together with a webcam, Google and ASUS have given users the appealing ability to video chat, which might be done through the pre-loaded Google speak app or others from Google Play if you've got a most well-liked favorite like Tango.

For most folks, that may most likely be the extent of the camera's attractiveness, as a result of it's not extremely meant to require photos. other than the problem of its rough quality, Google did not even embody a native camera app through that you'll be able to activate the hardware and use it to snap photos. There are third-party apps you'll be able to nab from Google Play which will activate the camera, however once you cannot see what you are shooting and also the quality is therefore poor, why bother?

Battery Life

The battery lifetime of the Nexus seven is nice, and that i suspect that's, in massive half, attributable to the potency of the operating system that barely sips away at the tablet's reserve when performing solely basic functions. Leaving the pill in standby for extended periods of your time can barely drain the issue, too. In fact, with all notifications set to push, Wi-Fi invariably on (and connected, because the pill was invariably either in my apartment or the office), and also the brightness set to most, the Nexus seven lasted me simply back of a full week (about twelve hours).

And whereas there have been largely light-weight functions being performed, like checking my email after I received a notification, they were being performed on a daily basis, at the side of some a lot of intensive tasks, like internet browsing, video streaming, and game enjoying. I even scan an eBook for a straight hour (again, with brightness at full blast) throughout that amount of your time.

The only alternative issue that i will be able to say is that Google currently will cause the battery to empty to a small degree faster (understandably so) though it does not fully sap the issue by any means that. I simply happened to note that when I had activated it and it began automatically pulling cards on behalf of me at my designated points in time, many hours were shaved off of the battery life.

Conclusion

Put simply, Google nailed it with the Nexus seven pill. It took aim at the Kindle hearth and it hit its mark, making a pill that is not solely equally reasonable at $200 (or $250, $50 over the fireplace if you wish the 16GB version), however conjointly a lot of powerful and feature-packed. other than its quad-core processor and a more recent, improved version of Android, the Nexus seven conjointly has access to the Google Play store, giving users a wider choice of apps. Tack on a sexier build and a front-facing camera for video chatting and it starts to become clear that the Nexus seven will do everything the fireplace will do, but better.

The Nexus seven might not be excellent -- the odd button placement, horrific speaker, and also the Tegra three processor virtually living up to the terribly high standards that are expected of quad-core chips, as an example -- however it positive is shut. For $200, the Nexus seven is that the better of each worlds: it is a nice deal with none compromise. it is the best budget pill out there as a result of with its high-end specs it's, in fact, not a budget pill the least bit.

Pros:

Beautiful build
Quad-core processor performs well
Android 4.1 is an economical upgrade with nice new options


Cons:

While solid, doesn't perform quite further collectively would expect from a quad-core processor
Terrible speaker
Slightly uncomfortable button placement

BlackBerry Curve 8530 Reviews

BUILD & style

Overall the Curve 8530 encompasses a fashion-forward style aimed toward a younger shopper audience. rather than a chrome bezel and pronounced convenience keys that you just notice on the Tour, you will find a rubber strip round the facet with convenience keys that appear to bulge out of its sides. On the highest of the device you discover a group of media-control keys.

The front of the phone shows off what's maybe its best feature -- the trackpad in place of the standard trackball. whether or not you are a seasoned BB veteran or a newcomer, you will appreciate the intuitive, simple to use reliable performance of the trackpad. This one feature alone could be enough to knock the Tour out of competition.

The keys on the keyboard are a "chicklet" holdover from the previous generation.

The Talk, End, come back and Menu keys are redesigned as if they're a part of the screen -- not a style selection i am significantly keen on.

The screen itself pales as compared to the gorgeous show on the Tour, however there's nothing outright wrong with it. there is nothing to complain concerning, however if you were to carry your Curve up to a Tour, you'd notice the distinction.

The biggest annoyance, design-wise, is that the LED indicator lightweight. On an everyday BlackBerry there is no method you are going to miss a message. you'll not be distracted by the LED lightweight on the Curve 8530, the indicator that is simply barely larger than the tip of a ballpoint pen, and its lightweight is... understated, to place it kindly.

Size and Weight


The Curve 8530 overall is smaller than the Tour, and feels lighter, though it still encompasses a terribly sold and composed feeling to it. you will not hate yourself for dropping this phone -- it looks like it will take a beating that is refreshing compared to a number of today's delicate phones.



PERFORMANCE

I've already mentioned that the Curve encompasses a huge leg-up over its brethren by having a touchpad rather than the trackball. The facet where the 8530 extremely hits it out of the park is with its operating system. The Curve 8530 options BlackBerry OS five.0, currently thereforele} device on the Sprint lineup to try to to so.

The 5.0 operating system is not revolutionary, however offers nice several very little enhancements, like wirelessly syncing of contacts with bound email suppliers, the power to flag messages for follow up, higher application permission management, and vastly improved ability to manage ringing profile settings.

The processor on the Curve 8530 is a smaller amount powerful than a number of its contemporaries, as well as the Tour, and typically it might droop. for many of what you are doing most of the time, however, you will not notice this lack of power. Power users, on the opposite hand, ought to think about a additional powerful device.

Voice Quality
Generally the 8530 could be a solid performer, however its decision quality simply|is barely} just average.

There was to a small degree background static sometimesn|every now and then} and the sound itself was somewhat hollow. Not a deal breaker, however you get the distinct sense that you are employing a cellular phone when creating calls on this device.

Wireless information


This BlackBerry boasts a 3G Sprint antenna, GPS, Bluetooth, and better of all Wi-Fi. The latter of those isn't out there on the Tour -- another purpose in favor for the Curve.

Though Sprint's 3G coverage is not as in depth as AT&T or Verizon in my space, wherever I did have coverage there have been no hiccups to be found.

Additional Software


Of course, this smartphone includes the now-standard BlackBerry apps: the DataViz DocumentsToGo workplace suite, Pandora, BlackBerry Maps, and a slew of social networking apps.

Sprint's version of this BlackBerry conjointly comes preloaded with a number of Sprint-specific apps, as well as Sprint Navigation, Sprint NASCAR, NFL, TV and music apps. though these apps sound promising, I had a tough time obtaining them to perform reliably and typically could not get them to launch in any respect. this could be a draw back of giving constant apps across all of its phones.

Camera


The built-in camera on new generation Curve does not have a flash, that could be a step backward for BlackBerry. Its two megapixel camera conjointly lacks auto-focus and encompasses a lower resolution that the cameras found on alternative models (Bold 9700, Tour, Storm). Given these issues but the camera still performs quite well.


CONCLUSION

On alternative carriers, the BlackBerry Curve 8530 is stripped down and created to suit nicely into place in its product line. For Sprint but, this can be not the case. You get the most recent operating system, the most recent hardware with the track pad, Wi-Fi, all stuff you will not see on alternative Sprint BlackBerrys... at the simplest value.

The Curve 8530 can fall short in bound aspects, though -- it's less powerful than the Tour, its keyboard is not as slick because it may be, its camera does not hit the benchmark of three.2 megapixel with auto focus, and also the screen is not as spectacular.

On balance, however, unless you are a world-traveling power user, the Curve could be a far better deal than the other BlackBerry for Sprint straight away.

Pros:

Trackpad
Updated styling
Battery life outperforms alternative BlackBerrys
Smaller than the Tour

Cons:

Just average decision quality
Small LED indicator
Low-resolution camera
Smaller than the Tour - less screen property

Specification Detail:


GENERAL

2G Network CDMA 800 / 1900
3G Network CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
Announced 2009, November
Status Available. Released 2009, December

BODY

Dimensions 109 x 60 x 13.9 mm
Weight 106 g
Keyboard QWERTY

DISPLAY

Type TFT, 65K colors
Size 320 x 240 pixels, 2.46 inches (~163 ppi pixel density)
- Touch-sensitive optical trackpad

SOUND

Alert types Vibration; Polyphonic(32), MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes
- Dedicated music keys


MEMORY

Card slot microSD, up to 32GB
Internal 256 MB ROM

DATA

GPRS No
EDGE No
Speed Rev. 0, up to 153.2 Kbps

WLAN

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
USB Yes, microUSB

CAMERA

Primary 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels
Features Geo-tagging
Video Yes
Secondary No

FEATURES OS

BlackBerry OS 5.0
CPU 528 MHz
Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, IM
Browser HTML
Radio No
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support
Java No
Colors Black, Purple
- BlackBerry maps
- MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- Organizer
- Document viewer
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input

BATTERY

Standard battery, Li-Ion 1150 mAh
Stand-by Up to 252 h
Talk time Up to 4 h 30 min

Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 Reviews

The original Xoom arrived in an exceedingly pre-iPad a pair of world. on condition that context, Motorola's original pill was well-designed, with nice hardware, and since it marked the debut of Honeycomb, it absolutely was arguably the primary Android pill with a capable operating system.

Less than a year later, given what Samsung has done with its Galaxy Tab line of tablets and what Asus was able to triumph with the Transformer Prime, a corporation would be crazy to unharness a pill with specs and options just like the Xoom. Not if it had any affordable expectation of success, that is.

So, as we tend to prepare to enter one more year of regularly advancing technology, the discharge of the Droid Xyboard eight.2 demands the question: did Motorola push the planning, performance, and options of its follow-up to the Xoom so much enough to create it price considering, or is that this a stopgap on the road to one thing way more impressive?

Design


The 8.2-inch version of the Xyboard is, not surprisingly, each thinner and lighter than the ten.1-inch Xoom. it is also lighter than the nine.7-inch iPad a pair of, however Apple's pill remains a hair skinnier.


From the front, the Xyboard sounds like a typical black pill, apart from its corners, that taper inward. the sides are lined with a easy-to-grip rubber material that extends to the rear, till meeting with an aluminum plate. whereas I appreciate the plate's purpose of reinforcing the tablet's integrity whereas conjointly keeping it lightweight, the visible screw heads viewing me from atop the plate created it troublesome to ignore the shoddiness of its implementation.


When held horizontally with the cameras on the left, the Xyboard's right edge is home to one speaker, a Micro-USB port, a Mini-HDMI port, and a door that covers the SIM card slot. On the left edge is another speaker, followed by an infrared sensor, right next to a headphone jack. On the left bezel, midway between the left corners, sits a 1.3-megapixel camera, with a 5-megapixel LED-supported camera placed directly opposite on the rear. like several smaller tablets, inserting the camera directly within the middle like this tends to draw unwanted guest appearances from your fingers in photos and videos. inserting the camera a bit higher or on the highest bezel would have created all the distinction.


The power/lock button and volume rocker don't seem to be solely hidden away on the rear, however are flush with the body of the pill, creating them not solely troublesome to accurately press, however conjointly to search out, while not flipping it around. whereas this solves the matter of accidentally hitting the buttons, it makes planning to them quickly a brand new challenge.

The Xyboard comes with each an influence adapter and a further USB cable, every of that plugs into the Micro-USB port. Most vendors mix the functions of those into one cable, however not therefore here. not like the minimalist pill style, the facility adapter itself is oversize and should need you to create some area for it on your power strip. Thankfully, with the USB cable plugged into a laptop, the battery still charges, albeit at a slower rate. throughout charging, a white LED lightweight begins pulsating within the middle right of the tablet's bezel.

Software options


The Xyboard are upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich, however ships with Honeycomb three.2 put in, still as a number of custom Motorola and Verizon applications like MotoPack, a curated Motorola app store; MotoCast, that allows you to stream and download movies and photos from your laptop to the Xyboard; and V solid Apps, another curated app store tailored for Verizon devices. V solid Media aggregates all of your media for enjoying in one place, however we tend to could not truly get it to play video from our library.

Unfortunately, so as to sideload files onto the Xyboard, you are needed to 1st install Motorola's MotoCast software on your laptop. solely then can the drivers for your Xyboard be put in. though you've got completely no plans to use MotoCast, you are still forced to put in it. over a minor annoyance.

Like the Samsung Galaxy Tab seven.0 Plus, the Xyboard eight.2 options an infrared sensor and includes a universal remote management app. whereas the Tab seven.0 and used Peel as its remote management software, the Xyboard eight.2's Dijit may be a less sturdy and fewer helpful app.

While setup was easy and simple, the vary on the infrared sensor is severely restricted when using the software, annoyingly topping out at concerning eight feet. we tend to were unable to see whether or not this was a hardware or software issue, however.


Hardware options


The Droid Xyboard eight.2 comes full of all the formerly spectacular pill hardware goodies we tend to currently take without any consideration. These embrace an eight.2-inch IPS capacitive bit screen running at one,280x800-pixel resolution, a 1.2GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 32MB of flash memory storage, with a 16GB version accessible still. The gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient lightweight sensor, Bluetooth a pair of.1 +EDR, and 802.11 b/g/n network adapter spherical out the hardware highlights.

Performance


Navigating Honeycomb on the Xyboard felt responsive, with apps launching quickly. However, having been spoiled by the Asus Transformer Prime's abundant smoother swiping transitions, i could not facilitate however be disappointed by the "framey-ness" apparent here when swiping through app pages. whereas the transition takes place simply as quickly, it's merely not as swish. When making an attempt to open the Gallery and also the movie player, I conjointly experienced some frequent hangs and long pauses that I had to reboot the pill to alleviate.

When surfing the net, swiping through pages was simply as quick; but, when a website loaded, scrolling quickly down a page made severe visible clipping. throughout internet surfing, the CPU, in a shot to not waste time drawing content nobody will see, can solely draw the assets on the screen. something not currently on the screen are drawn after you scroll to it. sadly, if you scroll too quickly you will see assets being drawn in because the pill makes an attempt to stay up together with your scrolling speed. this is often common across several Honeycomb tablets.

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Riptide GP, a jet ski game accessible from the Android Market, is nice for comparing pill GPU performance. not like Shadowgun, that appears to cap its frame rate, Riptide truly scales, and reckoning on the speed of the processor running it, the game's frame rate are noticeably smoother or choppier.

However, in our tests, despite the fact that the Xyboard contains a slightly faster one.2GHz OMAP 4430 whereas the Tab eight.9 contains a 1GHz Tegra a pair of, there wasn't a plain distinction in frame rate. Though not "low," the frame rate did not begin to approach the high levels of the sport running on the iPad a pair of or Transformer Prime.


The Xyboard's 5-megapixel rear camera took detailed still photos that compared favorably with similar shots taken with the Tab eight.9's 3-megapixel camera. The Xyboard's photos were sharp and clear, with sensible color replica. Shutter speed was fairly fast still.

The Xyboard's captured 720p video was swish with a lot of correct color than I got from the Tab eight.9, that tended to oversaturate the movie with an abundance of red.

Verizon's LTE network 4G speeds were impressively fast; I downloaded a 19MB app in twenty two seconds, whereas an equivalent file took sixteen seconds on Wi-Fi. Even with the pill idle and 4G off, the battery perceived to drain lots faster than for a typical pill with 4G on.



Conclusion


There are lots of selections for pill shoppers these days. The lower-end 7-inchers just like the Kindle fireplace and Nook pill provide pretty controlled Android experiences however high out at $250. The iPad a pair of and Transformer Prime provide a premium pill expertise that starts at $500.

Verizon offers the Xyboard eight.2 beginning at $430, however that is given that you check in for a two-year contract. Off contract, expect costs to begin at $600, and that is for the 16GB version. It's extraordinarily troublesome for us to advocate such a deal when higher selections exist. The Transformer Prime for $500 gets you 32GB of storage and a faster, quad-core CPU, in an exceedingly way more thoughtfully designed package.

However, if you are willing to procure 4G speeds on a pill, they're undoubtedly quick here. Still, with technology advancing as quickly because it is, does one really need to urge roped into a two-year contract in an exceedingly still-nascent market?

The Motorola Droid Xyboard eight.2 is not a nasty product in itself, however the pricing structure makes it not possible for us to advocate. There are higher choices out there, with a lot of returning soon.

Motorola DROID Xyboard eight.2 Specs


General:

AKA:?
Released:09/12/2011
Form Factor:Slate
Hardware Keyboard:No

Size

Width:8.50 inches
Height:5.47 inches
Depth:0.35 inches
Weight:13.62 ounces

Display

Type:Capacitive
Technology:IPS LCD
Size:8.2 inches
Resolution:1280x800px

Camera

Megapixels:5 MP
Autofocus:Yes
Flash:LED
Megapixels:5 MP
Video Quality:720p
Video FPS:30
Secondary Camera(Front Facing)
Megapixels:1.3 MP
Autofocus:?
Flash:?
Video Quality:?

Connectivity

Bluetooth:Bluetooth two.1
Bluetooth Types:EDR
USB:MicroUSB
Wifi:802.11b/g/n
GPS:Yes
GPS Types:aGPS

Multimedia

Headset Jack:3.5mm
Speakerphone:?
FM Tuner:?
Browser:?

Battery

Type:Li-Ion
Capacity:3960 mAh
Removable:No

OS
Version:Android 3.2
Custom UI:?

Hardware

Internal Memory:16,32 GB
External Memory:No
RAM:1 GB
Processor:TI
Processor Speed:1.2 GHz